Love the smooth jazz sensibility of this. There’s lots of jazzy progressions in 80’s pop which is probably why I love it so much. Also Japanese city pop is some of the most amazing 70’s and 80’s music out there.
I appreciate that your keyboard diagram has all the notes labeled. As someone who is always a bit slow to recognize notes on a keyboard just by looking at them, it helped considerably to follow along with what you were saying
The humor is so out of left field sometimes and I’m HERE for it. Love your vibe and your teaching method, super easy to follow. “Sussy bussy” sound lmaooo call me a subby
I'm a working guitarist / producer / sound engineer and have decided it would be beneficial to actually take a look at composition on piano to help take another step in theory understanding. I've also been listening to tons of city pop over the summer. So I loved this video. I'm going to learn some city pop tunes on the keyboard!
@@supernothing77 I got to admit I don't know 100%. I only discovered what I think is city pop this year. To me it's specifically Japanese, with a Japanese vocalist. The genre style is this kind of smooth funky 80s sound you can hear in the video. Search for City Pop Playlist and you'll get some examples!
Thanks for this! The cluster notes…and moving one of them down an octave is such a lightbulb moment. So many rich chords and new progressions available 😊
Especially with this electric (or fm) piano sound, it does remind me of music by Luther Vandros, Al Jarreau or Michael McDonald. Those are well known 80s artists. 😊
The music in the beginning is extremely typical for Japanese 80s pop incl. the new wave of inspired artists. It's the obligatory use of dim chords that gives it away. But playing these chords on an old Rhodes or piano, you get a feeling of lounge, 70s disco, smooth jazz or easy listening like Burt Bacharach. It all comes from artists well versed in jazz most definitely. Diving into these genres can inspire a more natural and creative approach when trying to make good 80s pop. David Foster is a go-to listen from then. He was almost involved in everything.
you are fireee! Eliana can you please make a related video where you break down the sounds you used on this track and how sound selection and the chords go hand in hand in making this sound?
If she doesn't. Check through your "EP" (electric piano) presets on any keyboard and there should be something close. The "FM E. Piano" especially, if available. Anything that has that chime in the attack, and not too much distortion in the sustain. It's my favorite electric piano sound, and it (or a very similar sound) is used in the Koji Kondo piece "Dire Dire Docks".
You are awesome! I am so happy I have found this channel! 🥰 I still live in the 80's, musically speaking, so it is nice to meet people like you‼️ Greetings from Japan
The suspended voicing one octave below is incredible, thank you SO much for sharing! Very interested in the more advanced theory concepts you mention too :)
I absolutely loved this tutorial. Those beautiful lush chords. I would never have thought of putting notes so closely together. A very valuable lesson. Thanks Eliana.❤
Eliana is one of the top producers ive heard when it comes to producing with a DAW. Her music has feeling groove and she knows what she's doing. Much respect.
At first I didn't think this would interest me but when I saw the key roll and what you were doing, just playing around, I was hooked. Subbed and grateful.
Love your sound! Those min9 and 7#5 chords are delicious, and you nailed the squidgy staccato moving bassline. Look forward to hearing the finished track soon!
Good stuff! Loved the chord voice clusters. It's not 80s, but I always refer to that dominant 13sus as the 'long and winding road' dominant. My favorite 80s use of that chord would probably be the theme from punky brewster.
Hi Eliana, I just discovered your channel, GREAT! Your explanations are crystal clear! I'm back to electronic music after 20 years being on stage with live bands/musicians, so I'm refreshing a lot and finding out a lot of new inventions 🙂
This video definitely gave me some ideas for some chords to try out on my next track. Thanks for the breakdown, and damn that example track in the beginning is some funky freshness
Great stuff! Such a pleasure to study this music sound and style. In many movie scores of the 80 this embellishment chords can be found, specially in the film scores of Henry Mancini in the 1980s, in films such as "Blind Date" or " That's life". Thanks for uploading this video, it's really cool!!
hey this is so helpful to me -- the way you discuss it and demo it and visualize it-- just really got through to me, and I can be sorta dense about this stuff. Thanks!
80s was my time...my English isn t good but u speak well ..I understand everithing Thanks :) Yesterday i ve made an remake of Mad world ( MIDIs i ve down loaded ) now my YT algerrythm shows me this :-O VID Thaks for your Lession :) your my Friend too., Lady ....U make your thing right....I love to produce Synth Pop (With two US female singers from your Soundbetter page )......Thank you USA
Thank you, love this and the production value you bring to your lessons. I can actually follow along with enough piano lessons behind me. Thanks again!
I liked these tutorials. They gave me some Doja cat vibes with the progressions. Eliana, can you please do more detailed tutorials showing us how to achieve those chord progressions?
Great video, happened on it by chance. I'm a guitarist who mainly played metal but I've always loved that 80s sound and synthpop and funk and such are things I'd love to write and this video really helped. Keyboards are a bit alien to me so this was good, the visual keyboard on the bottom was a great help. I was a little confused at first but once you showed stretching out the chord so you had those whole tone notes with various notes above and below it made a lot more sense. Thanks again.
Excellent video and clear explanation! One thing to keep in mind: the instrument timbre also plays an important rule to this (you won’t be using this technique with, let’s say, a higher pitched instrument such as a lead). I’m gonna try this technique and see how far I can go 😊
